Sense of Something

Chapter 3: Frost Bite

For brief moments during his sleep, Gary had heard noises he was not used to. They were too brief and not quite loud enough to wake him, but were just barely noticeable. However, at some point, an annoying crunching noise that would not cease managed to rouse him. His eyes, practically sealed by exhaustion of the previous day, slowly crept open. His head was down, resting atop his arms, which were folded across the desk and hid the map paper. At some point, Crimson, now astonishingly mature, had joined him for a rest atop the desk. What a handsome bird. He glanced at a small clock he kept in the corner of the desk, and then he wondered if the time was at all accurate. The clock read 4:45. Was that correct?

He yawned a bit, then sat up straight and stretched. He felt every joint in his body pop a little, and felt incredibly stiff. He had fallen asleep like this before, but his body never quite accepted the poor posture. As a result, he felt sore every time. Even so, he wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew he should at the very least find the source of the crunching noise. He stood, stretched a bit more, and looked around the room. He noticed the holes in the doorway from the previous day. So it wasn't a dream, he thought, this is all really happening.

Gary began to stumble like a drunken man around the room, the exhaustion and stiffness still impeding his walk. The noise got louder the closer he got to the kitchen. He sleepily wandered around the corner, taking note of the absent chunks and bits of wall as he went. His gaze followed the holes and bits on the floor to the refrigerator, where a giant, golden honey-colored lizard with bat wings stood with the door open, its head inside, crunching on something in the salad crisper. Gary approached the beast, gave it a tap between the hips, and ordered, "Dmitri, out!"

The dragon looked over its left shoulder at the New Master, studied him for a moment, then turned his head back around and continued crunching on what few apples and various vegetables it did not already eat.

"Dmitri!"

Finally, the dragon listened. It backed up away from the refrigerator, weaving its tongue between its teeth to get out as many left-over bits of food as it could. Fruits and vegetables were very low on its list of favorite food, but that was all the New Master had that it could find, and thus, it would have to do. A picky dragon was a dead dragon.

Gary sighed and scratched under the dragon's chin. "Are you still hungry?" he asked.

A rumble from the beast's belly was enough to answer the question.

"Okay then. Let's see what I have left." He turned and looked in the refrigerator. Most of what little food he had was gone, and the majority of what little was left had big bite marks taken out of it. He managed to find a plate of leftover squid, a bowl of chopped carrots and celery, and a head of mostly uneaten cabbage. "This will have to do . . . Hope you don't mind soup."

He turned to the counter on the left of the refrigerator and pulled open a drawer. Inside were a few knives and a cutting board. He pulled out the cutting board and a large cleaver, set the board down, moved the cabbage on top, set the squid down, and then chopped up the cabbage. Dmitri sat and watched curiously. It observed the New Master's careful cutting, then watched him kneel to the cabinets below the drawers and pull out a large pot and a lid. He filled the pot with water then set it on the stove to boil. Luckily it seemed to still work, but, Gary thought, it won't stay that way for long.

"This is called cooking," he told the dragon. "Have you ever done that before?" He chuckled to himself slightly. It was very awkward talking to what should, by all means, not exist, but he had to do something to break the hushed atmosphere. He was absolutely sick of the quiet.

As the water started to boil, Gary searched the cabinets for something else, perhaps some herbs or spices to give a bit more flavor. Squid and vegetable water was not what one would call tasty, if anything it was hard to stomach, and he wanted something more for his guests. Speaking of guests, where was Akari?